Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Cops clear themselves after shooting teenager 14 times

It should come as no surprise that the NZ Police have investigated themselves and found that their shooting of a teenager 14 times is all fine and dandy and nothing to see here...

Mum rejects police shooting reportThe mother of a man shot dead by police says she is not satisfied with an investigation into his death and will hire an expert to conduct further forensic examinations.

The results of the investigation, published yesterday, said an officer fired 14 shots at Lachan Kelly-Tumarae but hit him only three times. Mr Kelly-Tumarae, 19, was hit in his abdomen, right thigh and right leg.

I am against Police gaining more access to guns. Our Policing philosophy is containment, it's not gung-ho militarization of the cops, swat-teams-are-go type of policing. The issue is having well trained Police Officers leading any AOS call out and that other frontline police have access to guns in their cars, but more than that isn't a place we want to go to. My main fear about strapping guns onto cops and sending them out the door is that due to the piss poor training their receive, we'll get panicked cops reaching for the trigger first without justification.

This latest case of a teenager being shot dead and the Police going on TV and lying about how many times he was shot and lying that he fired first should concern NZers.

I say this 'should' cause concern, but I doubt it will. The cop worship authority complex we have in this country that sees any action by Police on par with God himself is so entrenched that even when other Police Officers eye witness abuse by other cops, our sheeple juries always let basher cops walk...

Our mainstream media is so uncritical when it comes to the Police that even when the culture of sado-masochistic pack rapes inside the Police force were uncovered during the Louise Nicholas trial, the mainstream media were quick to claim this was a case of just a few bad apples.

An interesting test of how culturally cemented our unblinking cop worship has become was in the search and surveillance bill. When questioned why the Police needed these draconian spy powers, sleepy hobbits on talkback brainlessly answered 'If you don't have anything to hide you won't care' - when however questioned why 70 other Government agencies should have the power to spy, the reaction was far more 'bloody Gummint get lost'.

We aren't prepared to the let the Government break into our homes and plant spy cameras, but want to roll out the welcome mat for the Police?

My only hope is the next IPCA report on the so called Urewera terror case. My understanding is that the report is deeply critical and damning of the NZ police. Could we finally get a check and balance to hold the Police to account? Let's hope so.